MD Microbiology & Virology. Understanding & Engineering Human T Cell Immunity @UniFAU. Cycling. BVB. Cinema. Family.
Jun 14 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
On my way to @badw_muenchen, and as often then finding time and inspiration to read stuff that I should know, but actually don’t. Here’s a short history of the discovery of the T cell receptor. 🧵
In 1982, @JimAllisonPhD, McIntyre & Bloch described @J_Immunol a molecule that is expressed on T cell lymphomas. Searching for immunotherapy targets, they noticed an antibody (Mab 124-40) bound T cell lymphomas (but not normal splenocytes!). It was disulfide-bonded, 2x40k m.w.
Mar 5 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
What would happen if you got vaccinated against the same antigen over and over again? In @TheLancetInfDis, we now report on a hypervaccinated individual from Magdeburg (HIM) who received 217 vaccinations within 29 months against SARS-CoV-2. 👇 1/19 thelancet.com/journals/lanin…
When, in 2022, the media reported about a man from Germany who received at least 90 vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2, we (as many others) wondered what kind of consequences such hypervaccination would have on the immune system. 2/19
May 9, 2023 • 18 tweets • 8 min read
Did you ever wonder what the avidity landscape of an antigen-specific T cell population is before antigen encounter? And how it's recruited as a polyclonal population into immune responses? I certainly did. Here's what we found, now out @ImmunityCP: authors.elsevier.com/c/1h2me3qNrUu3… 🧵/18
Before an organism "sees" an antigen for the first time, already hundreds of T cell clones exist that recognize this epitope. Upon antigen exposure, these precursors expand and differentiate, forming immunological memory. 2/18
Dec 22, 2022 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
We observed an unexpected rise in IgG4 antibodies after repeated SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. This work is now published @SciImmunology. The 🧵👇 will point to my tweetorial of the original preprint as well as new data in the peer-reviewed version. 1/11science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Re-cap: There are 4 IgG subclasses dependent on the Fc part (so the antigen-binding Fab is the same). However, effector functions (antibody-dependent phagocytosis, complement deposition, cellular cytotox) are different. Also see preprint 🧵👇2/11
NEW PREPRINT by the labs of Tenbusch, Winkler and ourselves @UniFAU. We made the surprising observation that later after 2° SARS-2 mRNA vax non-inflammatory IgG isotypes are coming up, which are boosted by 3° vax and/or breakthrough infections. This may be pretty relevant. 🧵 1/n
Early after (mRNA) vax, pro-inflammatory IgG1 and IgG3 isotypes are induced. This is well documented also by many others. Pro-inflammatory means good Fc-mediated effector function (phagocytosis, complement, ADCC). But: Late after 2° vax, IgG4 suddenly pops up. This is unusual 2/n
